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The following is a story of Voltron I made up based on the T.V. cartoon Voltron by World Events Productions. I did not have World Events Productions' permission to do the story and therefore it does not have World Events Productions' endorsement.
Merla returned with her vulture on her shoulder to Castle Gray Stone on Planet Doom. She had almost lost him when she had, on that very same day, had him turned into a robeast while they were on Planet Arus. He was almost destroyed. By miracle of divine intervention, he was made whole again, but then evil could no longer touch him.
Inside the castle, Merla first came across Witch Hagar. They happened to brush against each other as they passed by in a hallway. During the contact, Merla read the witch's mind and was immediately aware of Hagar's task at hand involving Lotor. She didn't have to touch Hagar to read her mind, but her direct contact with the witch caused her to reach out to the witch's mind without using conscious effort.
Merla reached out and grabbed Hagar's arm, yanking her back to face her, and urgently inquired, "You're going to do what with Lotor? "
"You've read my mind," commented Hagar calmly. "Yes, he's demanding to become a robeast. If I have to do it, I'll make him the most powerful robeast that has ever existed. And if I must do that, I'm not sending him on his own. I'm off to pick out the best of our own robeasts to make sure he defeats Voltron. But, maybe you can talk some sense into him."
Merla was visibly feeling some distress over Lotor's plans, and after letting go of Hagar's arm, she simply said in a tone of shock, "Yes . . . maybe I can . . ."
Then she and Hagar parted, and Merla was in search of Lotor. It didn't take long to find him. Then her vulture flew away off her shoulder to let her be with him by herself.
"Lotor!" she called to him, her voice somewhat stern.
"Merla," he responded in a harsh voice as he turned to face her. "What do you want?"
"Now is that anyway to greet your wife?" she asked coyly.
"What do I care?" he haughtily replied.
At first Merla took offense to the statement, but it lasted just a moment. Then her demeanor turned serious. She rushed forward to Lotor. Hugging herself close to his chest, she looked up at him and pleaded, "Lotor, don't do this. We'll find another way to defeat the Voltron force. Why insist on being a robeast?"
Lotor didn't hug her back, but he did look at her as she spoke. But after she was finished, he coldly stared past her and didn't answer her question.
Merla then suddenly pushed herself away from him. She had read his mind and angrily voiced, "You just can't get over her, can you? Lotor, you can't have her! She doesn't want you! Queen Allura will never be yours!"
"Queen . . . humph! She's still a princess in my heart, and I'm her prince whether she likes it or not."
"You demented dope! You can't have her! You and I belong together."
"I want Allura. You know that as well as I do. If I can't have her, no one will!"
Merla was furious, but saw no reason to say anymore, and she left in a huff.
Just after she was out of sight of Lotor, a sudden realization came to her. And suddenly it was clearer to her how much she had deeply loved the Prince of Doom all along. In those moments she suddenly realized that even before she had met Lotor, she had yearned to catch his fancy. Granted that if she had achieved that at the time, she would have just toyed with him, and then just discarded him. But, she hadn't caught his fancy. And those feelings of simple attraction for him were the beginnings of the love she felt for him as his wife for the second time. She also realized then why she had taken such a keen interest in the beauty of Queen Allura when Allura was a princess. Merla had been subconsciously sizing up what her competition was. And all along her subconscious wouldn't allow her to acknowledge the weakness she had for Lotor. Instead it only allowed her to view her feelings as sizing up the probability of ever having Lotor should the opportunity ever present itself in a manner of being an acquisition of power for Merla. At the time she wouldn't allow herself to believe her motives were connected at all with any true love for Lotor. She had to believe, needed to believe, that she only wanted him for purposes of furthering her own power. For her to admit to herself anything otherwise would cause her to think herself weak. But, when Keith had attempted to do away with Lotor, that's what it took for her subconscious to allow hidden feelings and desires for Lotor to become conscious. Essentially her love for him had overpowered her subconscious and conscious demands for power. And that's when she had found herself becoming self-sacrificing for the sake of Lotor.
"So it's Allura he wants," she said to herself snidely. "Then Allura he shall have!"
Merla then went straight for Hagar's laboratory. There she began casting her own spell. In a way it was her most powerful spell yet. For it wasn't directed at someone else; it was directed at herself.
"Boils and troubles burn bright.
Overcoming with outstretched might.
Bring upon me the image of the love of Prince Lotor's delight.
The appearance of the woman of his affection upon the Queen of Darkness, Prince Lotor's wife.
The enticing beauty of the one who controls his life.
Darkness reigns for darkness gains.
Deceit and deception the transformation remains;
And it is finished!"
Witch Hagar happened to catch Merla doing the whole spell and smiled as she viewed it as Merla's weakness to fall to practicing magic.
As Merla walked passed Hagar looking exactly like Allura with her hair down and long pink dress, Hagar commented, "So I see you're dabbling with favors from darkness -- on your way to becoming enslaved. And the sacrifice is such a shame. Oh, you definitely have the appearance of Queen Allura, but you completely neglected attaining her voice through the spell. Your plans are spoiled."
An infectious giggle burst from Merla, as sinister a giggle from Allura that she could possibly sound which was failing miserably for sounding sinister. "You underestimate my rule over darkness, Witch. I didn't need to conjure what's expected. I am the goddess of the night."
Hagar was visibly astonished with Merla's complete transformation into the appearance of Allura, even down to Allura's voice and laughter.
Merla then went to Lotor as Allura. Everything about her was Allura, right down to her voice. Or so it seemed that she had completely transformed herself into the once Princess of Arus.
"Lotor," she called sweetly from behind him.
"Allura?" Her turned and looked at her. "Allura, it is you!"
"Yes, Lotor. It's me, Allura. I've come to you. I'm yours!"
Lotor approached her. He stopped and caressed her cheek with his mechanical right hand (no, not like the mechanical arm of the Lotor in "Voltron the Third Dimension" -- read Wedding Terror to find out what happened to Lotor's arm). Her cheek was so soft to the touch. The sensation gladdened Lotor's heart immensely, and Merla was thoroughly enjoying the attention. Lotor's forefinger touched her lips. They were cold to the touch! It was then that he was reminded of the metal artificialness of his arm. That the arm was really not his own. His joyous heart was shattered into feelings of cold depression. All because he was mistakenly associating the cause of Allura's lips to feel so cold to be the fault of his artificial hand, which really had senses of touch that were as good or even better than his real arm had had. But his feelings of cold depression lasted just a moment. For even as he was still touching her lips, his arm returned to normal appearance. It looked and felt completely normal! Lotor felt more whole that he had ever felt in his entire life. It was all happening because of transference of powers of darkness from Merla out of her self serving love to keep him romantically intoxicated with her, so nothing would spoil those moments for her with him.
"Allura, I always knew our love would be magic!" proclaimed Lotor adoringly. He wanted so much to believe it was somehow all real, he didn't allow himself to think otherwise. For him, it was their love for each other that must have somehow magically made everything perfect.
He squeezed her close to him, and they hugged each other tight for a long while, just feeling each other's presence in the warm embrace turning hotter by the moment.
"Lotor, I love you so much," professed Allura so tenderly.
"I've always loved you, Allura. I've dreamed of you for as long as I can remember."
And truly Lotor meant that. In his mind, he'd been dreaming about Allura long before he first set eyes on her. Memories from a past he'd long forgotten had haunted him in his dreams ever since a time so long ago, that was once present, during which his mind defensively and abruptly shut out. Memories his subconscious couldn't let go because they were too important, yet too painful to remember what they all meant. So he was haunted with them in his dreams -- dreams of a beautiful woman taken from him. A woman who looked so much like Allura, yet he'd never remember the woman in his dreams was really his mother.
After speaking his words of love to Allura, he passionately kissed his princess on the lips, pressing himself as deeply into her as he possibly could. Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise couldn't have done it better!
Then all of a sudden Lotor just dropped the woman of his dreams carelessly to the floor.
"Ugh!" he complained, and his right arm instantly returned to its mechanical appearance. As he was turning away from her and leaving the room, and before he was gone, he threw in, "Your lips are cold. It just isn't the same." He had realized very soon during that kiss that she wasn't Allura and was really Merla because of the cold lips that gave her away. For just a moment, her lips were actually warm as Allura's would be, but it lasted just a moment and then they were cold. He knew then that it hadn't been his mechanical hand that had made the touching of her lips with his finger feel so cold. And at first when he realized she was Merla, he had continued on to kiss her, hoping that somehow he could live out the fantasy of pretending she was Allura. But with her cold lips, he couldn't. It just wasn't the same as what he'd been long anticipating what Allura would be like.
Upon hearing those words, Merla transformed back into herself, sprawled there on the floor, staring after to where Lotor had exited the room. Lotor's words had made it clear that he was no longer deceived in the least by Merla's appearance as Allura, and so the spell had been broken.
"Perish then you fool!" she spat into the nothingness. "Your love will be your own undoing. But I won't let it be mine!"
It was then that she noticed ugly raised black veins on the back of her left hand, like she had seen once before after she had used black magic to turn her vulture into a robeast. But, before the lines had faded away. She lifted her hand and looked at the palm. Its appearance had permanently changed. There were then dark lines all across it like the webbing of a fish net. Darkness had not yet enslaved her, but had left a permanent mark, just as it had all her life with the coldness of her lips. Magic had allowed her to mask her cold body heat to be warm as Allura's was warm, but not Merla's cold lips. Her love for Lotor mixed with the black magic had managed to warm her lips for just a moment, and that was all. Coldness; it was the mark of a witch. But Merla wasn't that. Not quite. She wasn't ice cold such as what Hagar was. Magic wouldn't ever mask Hagar's coldness unless it be magic of an incredibly self sacrificing nature. The only other oddity Merla and Hagar really had in common that was also the mark of a witch were the needle like claws they both had for fingernails. That was something Hagar had trouble masking when in disguise. Masking her hands did work, but the real appearance of her hands would creep out from time to time. For Merla, the task of changing the appearance of her hands was much easier, at least for the time being.
Just after Merla spoke her words of Lotor into nothingness that only her own ears heard, she pulled her knees up to her chest and bowing her head down she cried bitterly for a time, actually allowing herself feelings of self pity knowing that after Lotor was gone she'd likely never allow herself to love again.
Commentary: This story may seem unfair in that the love portrayed between Lotor and Allura seems even more passionate than what's shown between Keith and Allura in Keith and Allura: The Proposal . Perhaps that's true. But, the difference is that the love Lotor has for Allura is a possessive love, and his fondest dream is for her to be completely submissive to him and adoringly loving him and his dominance over her. What Keith and Allura share is a happy friendship love with mutual respect and passion for each other. I imagine that if Allura had ever initiated her want for Keith to have her with, "Keith take me. I'm yours," in a manner that she wanted him to rule over her indefinitely; I think Keith would have baulked at that. He's still deeply care for her, but would wonder what was going on to have her behave that way. I don't think Keith would want that kind of love from Allura. But I think reading about possessive love sounds more passionate than a happy friendship love. It just works out that way. Regardless, Keith's love for Allura is deeper than Lotor's love for Allura. Castle Gray Stone is the name of the castle on Planet Doom according to the animated Voltron series. The stories about when Merla almost lost her vulture are Battle of The Minds and When Evil Can Do No Harm . Based on the cartoons, Merla doesn't need to touch someone to read their mind. But I just added it myself that she could unconsciously read someone's mind if she happened to touch them, though I can't think a time in the animated series when it ever happens that way. Still the idea made sense to me, so I went with it. I have Hagar showing much concern about Lotor in this story. I base that on the animated series episode of when she helps Lotor talk his father out of disposing of him after Zarkon had beaten him in a battle. And another time she tried assuaging the King of Doom not to harm his son, but then backed down on the request after Zarkon suggested a threat to her. I see that as the feelings Lotor's mother coming through though she's trapped in Hagar. Then when Hagar backs down from helping Lotor, that's just her own stronger self interests taking over that have nothing to do with Lotor's mother. It was also during the animated episode involving hand to hand combat between Lotor and Zarkon that after the battle Lotor voices that he wants to become a robeast. But Hagar talks both Lotor and Zarkon out of that plan. In a later episode "Fleet of Doom," Lotor is the pilot of a robeast, but I felt drawn to create circumstances such as in this story in which Lotor would demand to be a robeast again, not merely be the pilot of one. The title "goddess of the night" is one I heard for Merla during one of the animated Voltron episodes. It's the most powerful title I've heard for her, and I chose to use it in this story because of the powerful black magic she uses and manages to suffer little consequence for it. This wasn't a story I had originally thought about writing, but the idea came to me as I was writing the series of stories. I was feeling bad for Merla regarding that Lotor still wants Allura, and I was feeling bad for Lotor that he still wants Allura. So I thought to myself of a way that Lotor could experience being with Allura without Allura experiencing being with him, and how Merla could experience what it'd be like to be the "object" of Lotor's love. So I came up with the story above. The part in this story where I mention how Merla had taken such a keen interest in Allura's beauty refers to a scene in the animated series during which Merla was apparently meeting the Princess of Arus for the first time and made a comment on Allura's beauty. So in this story I took the opportunity to create the explanation that Merla had done that because she was subconsciously sizing up what her competition for Lotor was. Merla did express being unimpressed by Lotor in the animated series, but in my imagination I saw her as toying with him and maintaining her want for dominance. It also seemed logical to me that's what she was doing since she was expressing affection for Lotor again (after they broke off their marriage) at the end of the second season of the animated series. The part about Merla's reaction to when Keith almost did away with Lotor is in the story Doom and Darkness United Again . The part where I talk about Lotor dreaming of Allura even before he had met her refers to the cartoon episode "Sleeping Princess" which reveals a re-occurring nightmare of Lotor's. Shannon Muir had the theory that the woman that wasn't Allura in Lotor's nightmare was really Lotor's mother. The theory makes a whole lot of sense to me, so I use it in my stories. The tid bit I wrote about Captain Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, was just something that came to mind that I thought would add a touch of humor as well accentuate the drama of the already dramatic situation. Yes, the kissing during Star Trek was incredibly faky, but looking passed that, it was faky in a dramatically romantic way. So possibly moving from the realm of merely sounding cheesy at the risk of sounding completely corny, I decided to use the Star Trek comparison anyway. The similarities in characteristics between Merla and Hagar are details from the animated series. To say that those were characteristics of a witch is something I inferred on my own. I also inferred on my own that Merla isn't as cold as Hagar (although the animated series reveals Merla is cold to the touch) and inferred that Merla would be able to mask her coldness except for her lips and would be able to mask the appearance of her hands easily if she would use powers of darkness to disguise herself. Although, at first I had intentions that perhaps Merla would have trouble keeping her hands masked like Hagar does, but I changed my mind. Merla's authority over powers of darkness is also something I inferred based on the titles she uses for herself in the cartoons. The cartoons revealed that Hagar is always ice cold, and she is ice cold even when she is disguised, and when in disguise she seems to have trouble keeping her hands disguised. So I inferred that it must be possible for Hagar to mask her body temperature, but it would have to be extremely powerful magic that would put her at great risk. At the end of this story, Merla is convinced that Lotor will soon perish. I figured that given her state of mind, that realization would grieve her much.
[Author -- Sheila Bliss, based on the previous creation of Voltron by World Events Productions]
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